3 NY Mets Champs Help Little League Kick Off Its 75th Season

Play ball! The Peter Stuyvesant Little League, whose catchment district stretches from East 12th Street to East 72nd Street and Fifth Ave. to the East River kicked off its 75th season with a parade to historic Con Ed field accompanied by “Mr. and Mrs. Met” and three stars of the 1986 World Series champion Mets team, Mookie Wilson, Darryl Strawberry, and Dwight “Doc” Gooden.

The three Mets stars happily signed autographs as they were mobbed by kids.

Mitchell Matthews, an 11-year-old who is playing for the Yankees in the majors (11-and-12-year-old) division snagged three autographs on a blue NY Mets cap. “They’re amazing,” he said of the three Mets stars, even though he said the team he roots for at the MLB level is the Boston Red Sox, the team the Mets beat. “My dad always rooted for [the Mets] when he was a kid,” Matthews said. Glancing at the cap with the three autographs on the brim, he said, “Technically it’s my hat, but I’m giving it to my father.”

Of course, talk among many of the parents recalled the last Mets championship, in 1986, when during a pivotal Game 6 a ground ball hit by Mookie Wilson rolled off the glove of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner, paving the way for the Mets to tie the Series at three games apiece before the Mets won the championship in Game 7.

Wilson said of Buckner to this reporter, “We became very, very good friends before he died. We did a lot of events together.”

Wilson said from the very start of the ’86 season, the Mets as a team felt they were destined to win the World Series. It was the second time he and Gooden appeared at the PSLL opening day, though the first time they did it together. Strawberry noted, “This is my first time here. It’s great to see,” as he gazed out at the crowd of several hundred kids, parents, and coaches.

All three encouraged kids to be good sports.

”Opening Day is such a great day for our community,” said NYS Assembly member Harvey Epstein, who is running for term-limited Carlina Rivera’s seat on the City Council this year.

Rivera was there as well, holding her son Benny. “I think I have a future player here,” Rivera told the crowd as she strode to the mic with her 2-year-old in her arms while husband Jamie Rogers held on to their 1-year-old, Oscar.

City Council member Keith Powers, who grew up in Stuyvesant Town, paid homage to past league commissioner Phil McManus, who was on the scene. “He was my first manager,” he recalled. “Going back to when I was a kid, this was always one of my favorites days.” Powers, who is term-limited, is running for Manhattan borough president. His opponent, NYS Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who used to attend the parade when he represented the East Side, instead spent part of the day at a rally against the Trump/Musk regime at a demonstration outside a Tesla showroom in the Meatpacking District.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who is running for comptroller, thanked Strawberry and Gooden for making the scene, but forgot to mention Wilson, who was busy signing autographs. On the campaign trail, Levine said his fundraising is ahead of his two rivals by a wide margin. He also said he’s not expecting to make an endorsement in the two person Dem race for his successor.

Vanessa Aronson and Faith Bondy, who are in the hunt to get the Dem nomination to succeed Powers in his City Council seat, were also on the scene at Opening Day.

Nick McKeon, the league president, said that the league roster is “holding steady at about 600 players.” That’s down from the pre-COVID years when the rosters swelled to over 700 kids but has held steady for the past few years. McKeon said he’s happy with the turnout.

The league includes a Challenger Division for kids with disabilities. Kids from the other teams turn out on Sundays to aid their physically challenged friends and neighbors. The Challenger Division is open to kids from across Manhattan. And since Con Ed installed the artificial turf on the two fields in 2011, it means wheelchairs have no trouble traversing the baseball diamond.

McKeon said girls softball was particularly strong this year. But the top turnout was in the 9-and-10-year-old baseball (hardball) division, which has eight teams. “We probably could have gone to nine,” he said. Tee ball, the youngest division, which plays on the brand-new turf at nearby Murphy’s Brother’s Park, still has openings. “I think a lot of them didn’t know the season started,” he said. And as the temperature headed toward 81 degrees, he said, “This is great baseball weather.”